a shallow grave
by Amarxlen
Summary: All his life, all Thomas Shelby has ever seen at the end for himself is a shallow grave. It will happen like this.


All his life, all Thomas Shelby has ever seen at the end for himself is a shallow grave. He had made too many enemies, pissed off too many people to die a quiet death, alone in his bed.

It will happen like this.

He will die kneeling above a pit of freshly turned dirt, the taste of his last cigarette harsh on his tongue. He will die with a bullet between his eyes and a smirk on his lips, because right up until the end it was his game, and at least he did right by his family. He will die under the open sky, and allow himself to reflect on the knowledge that he is actually grateful it ends like this, and not in France.

He will not perish at the end of a noose, as much as Campbell would like him to, because he's woven his web too tightly to be imprisoned. No, Thomas Shelby is the maker of his own destiny, for the most part at least, and the end was always destined to be on his own terms.

His end was always destined to be a shallow grave. He had accepted that long ago.

But that was before Grace.

That was before the baby.

Before Tommy Shelby had foolishly envisioned himself as a husband and father. Because for all his talk of respectability and legal business practices, that may be the one thing he ever lied about.

There were always new organizations to topple, new markets to be conquered. New people to be introduced to and made to forever remember the name Tommy Shelby and his Peaky Blinders. Though all of his efforts were very earnestly for becoming legitimate, it was never enough, there was always room to move up.

And of course, Sabini wasn't through just because the Blinders had taken over at Epsom. There would be retribution from him, Tommy was sure. But that was a matter for another day.

For now, it was more than enough to worry about how to get back to Small Heath and what Churchill wanted with him now.

But that didn't stop him from worrying about other things. Things like babies and wives and weddings. Now that Tommy had imagined it, it had to become reality; that was how most of his business ventures started, though this meant more to him than any part of business.

Although, he supposed this must mean he had lied twice, after all, he had told May that he would find her after the races. He _knew_ where he could find her, so he'd have to rectify that later as well. It was more difficult with Grace, knowing that she had left before and would probably have no qualms about doing so again. Probably, but now there was a baby involved and he couldn't predict how Grace would act anymore. Before, he would have thought she'd leave. Before, he had never envisioned her coming to him for approval as she did that day.

"Tell me I did the right thing," she had pleaded.

He hadn't lied when he said that she had. But it wouldn't do to have the mother of his child married to another man. It wouldn't do to have her running off to America and taking his child away from him. No, Tommy Shelby would not be denied his family. Not ever.

And so his thoughts were of marriage and babies when he finally made it back to the Small Heath office where only Michael waited. She would have to divorce her husband, which was no small matter to anybody else, but to Tommy it was as inconsequential as spending money. And it wasn't as if she would have nowhere to go afterwards. He would keep her close, where he could keep an eye on her and his child.

Because he wasn't stupid. He had considered very quickly that should anybody discover that Grace was pregnant with his child the two of them would be a quick target. He was able to keep a clear head at most threats, but should anything happen to Grace or their child he knew exactly what extents he would go to, and they weren't pretty. Better to just keep them both close, and what could be better than wife and child?

And she wanted it too, or she wouldn't have told him at all. She would have told her husband instead, pretending it was his so they could happily sail away to New York. That was how he knew it was true when she said she loved him too. Of course, she had said it before, but it hadn't been enough back then. It hadn't been enough to convince her to abandon a life of morals and safety to instead live a life of corruption and uncertainty.

But Grace wasn't stupid either. She must know as well as he did the dangers and risks that came with bearing the name "Shelby". He couldn't imagine what had gone through her head at the discovery that it wasn't herself at fault in her and her husband's impotence dilemma. Whatever it was, he could only be grateful for it as he and Michael drank whiskey in his office and he daringly announced:

"I'm getting married."

All his life, all Thomas Shelby had ever seen at the end for himself was a shallow grave. But things were changing now, and that was to be the first. For Thomas Shelby is the maker of his own destiny, and he is getting married.


End file.
